Art Contest Planning How-To Guide

This is a step-by-step plan for hosting a food-related Art Contest in your school district. The guide provides links to communication templates that can be customized for your own Art Contest.

Communication

If you haven’t already done so, choose a vegetable or fruit (including beans and whole grains) for each month of the school year that can be used in an ongoing “Harvest of the Month” educational program. About.com’s State-Specific Seasonal Produce Guides can help with your planning.

If you’re creating a calendar, decide whether it will be printed yearly or monthly. Get printing costs for the posters or calendar menus and determine classroom prize money for participating art teachers.

Send a reminder email to art teachers four weeks prior to the deadline.

Selection and Distribution

Assemble a group of judges from the district. Involving many departments will extend the reach of your Harvest of the Month program. Suggested department judges include: food service, communications, and fine arts.

Try to ensure that every participating school has at least one winner. Inform all participants of winners by sending a Winner Selection Letter.

If you are creating a calendar, see BVSD's menu calendar examples. You can work with a graphic designer or print shop to develop your own template.

Poster artwork should be scanned digitally and resized to fit your needs. Lunch program and sponsor logos can be added to the layout at this time. Use student submission forms to create student information tags to hang next to each poster.